Higgs Boson was discovered by Homer Simpson 14 years before scientists

A science writer has moved to suggest that Homer Simpson predicted the mass of Higgs boson often known as ‘God Particle’ before it was discovered by other scientists. According to Physicist, Simon Singh, an episode aired in 1998 showed Homer drawing up an equation that is very similar to the mass of the ‘God Particle’ and that the equation predicted the mass of Higgs boson. It is quite amazing according to Singh that Homer was able to make the prediction, 14 years before scientists made the discovery.

Simpson remains the most mathematical TV show on prime as a lot of the writers on the program are mathematicians themselves. Singh told a literary festival that if you use the formulas tabled at the 1998 episode. You would be able to get the mass of Higgs boson that is only a bit larger than the actual mass of the particle as discovered by the team at CERN. Homer might not be considered a heavyweight in the world of physics but the episode shows he was well ahead in the discovery, than other scientists.

Higgs boson was first predicted by its namesake Peter Higgs in the 1960’s in a bid to understand how some particles get mass. It was only until 2013 when CERN finally showed that the long theorized Higgs boson did exist. Higgs boson is an elementary particle in physics that helps explain why particles have mass even though symmetries that control their interactions would suggest they don’t have mass.

The physicist believes that ‘The Simpsons’ is likely to be the most mathematical television show in the history of prime-time. Singh hopes that enthusiasm for mathematics and physics depicted by the show should help inspire young people to engage more with science and technology in greater numbers.

Singh is a well-known physics and a Ph.D. holder in particle physics from Cambridge University and CERN.